"Satan is a cunning workman and will lay against you words like these: "True it is that Christ is meek, gentle, and merciful, but to sinners He threatens wrath and destruction; your life is neither according to Christ's Word nor His example: for you are a sinner, and there is no faith in you; indeed, you have done no good at all, and therefore those verses which set forth Christ as a severe judge belong to you, and not those comfortable verses that show Him to be a loving and merciful Savior."
Here is the answer you must give Satan: The Scripture depicts Christ to us in two ways. First, as a gift: if I take hold of Him in this way, I can want nothing. For "in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). He, with all that is in Him, "is made unto me of God, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Therefore, although I have committed both many and grievous sins, yet if I believe in Him, they shall all be swallowed up by His righteousness. Secondly, the Scripture depicts Him as an example to be followed, as a mirror to behold and view how much is yet wanting in me, that I become not secure and careless. But in the time of tribulation I must see Christ as a gift, who dying for my sins has bestowed upon me His righteousness, and has done and accomplished that for me which is wanting in my life: "For He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Romans 10:4)." -Martin Luther
Jesus cried from the Cross, "It is Finished!" Jesus Christ, if He is indeed your Lord and Savior has taken each and every one of your sins upon His broken holy body, and became sin, and a curse for you. Why would Christ do this? Because His Father asked Him. And also becasue before the foundation of the world, Jesus loved you, and saw how lost you were in your sin, and were going to spend eternity in hell. So Christ and His Father purposed to glorify their mercy and goodness in dying for sinners, those who hate God, are selfish, and rebels, like you and me.
What a Savior! And the Gospel is the power that touches a dead soul, and plants a seed in the dead soul, and God's Word, the Gospel, the seed, springs to life through repentance and faith, as His Holy Spirit waters this dead soul. And so the once "dead in sin" soul becomes a "living eternal" soul, which now brings glory to God's grace, and causes great rejoicing in heaven, and the Lord has one of His beloved with Him, which pleases Him very much.
The Church needs to be about the Gospel, don't we. And we are, aren't we.
The false people in the Church will not care about the Gospel of grace, but will have a morality and niceness about them, and they will try to nice people into the church, and so many false converts are filling the visible church I'm afraid. Nice sinners, who have become a bit nicer, and perhaps turned over a new leaf on life, but haven't become saints of the Lord.
A sinner needs to become a saint, not a nice person. Of course when one becomes a saint, or a person who has been set apart from this world, he surely is now hungry to do righteous deeds, and love has now filled his heart through the Spirit. And this love is first and foremost for Jesus, but also for his neighbor, and even his enemy.
Well, that felt good to ramble a bit. I basically like to blog, because it helps me focus on the truth, and helps me seek the things of the Lord. And lets me vent a bit.
Thank You Lord for all You do for me. May I bless Your name, and please You this evening. Amen.
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